How to Avoid Counterintuitive Stepping Stones in Decision Making

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One rule of thumb that you use for deciding on projects is to try to avoid ideas that make too much sense. Getting to things that are really important or interesting will cross through counterintuitive stepping stones. That's basically the definition of counterintuitive. In hindsight they'll make sense, but looking forward they will seem like they don't make sense.

Artificial intelligence researcher and author Kenneth Stanley has argued that “as soon as you create an objective, you ruin your ability to reach it.” So what should you consider when thinking about your objectives, and what will set you up for success? On this episode Stanley discusses how to set the right objectives for your life, why we’re too tied to accomplishments, what role accountability plays in our education system, the value of peer review, why transformative innovations are always counter intuitive, and so much more. Stanley is the co–author of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, as well as the former Head of Core AI Research at Uber AI and the Open-Endedness Team Leader at OpenAI. He has also served as the Charles Millican Professor in Computer Science at University of Central Florida.

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